Let’s get to it.
- Sometimes it seems like I could write the same headline and the same general column every week. It would chronicle the latest fake scandal the Dems are putting the country through, the White House defense, the press amplification of Dem talking points, and in time the failure of the Dem op. Then we’d just wait until next week for the subsequent false controversy. And so on.
- What also is the same is the consistent courage and toughness of the POTUS. He fights the good fight against those who are deeply hostile to democracy, freedom of speech, and the free market. No chief executive has ever had to undergo the baseless attacks he has endured. And they are not going to end. Any time the left and the Dems do not get exactly what they want, which is total power, they will hold the nation hostage until they think we will all fold just to stop the political cacophony.
- Given they got a nasty surprise in November of 2016, they decided then, in keeping with their aforementioned hatred of democratic rule, that they would overturn the verdict of the voters by any means necessary no matter how vile, how dishonest, how injurious to the United States. That’s why we fight, that’s why the president fights, to stop those who put power over country, lies over truth, expediency over leadership, and emotion over reason irrespective of their party affiliation. Boris Johnson has the same fight on his hands in the UK.
- But don’t let me leave you with the impression that the right is perfect, even compared to the hard left. We have our own hysterical idiots, those who would blindly follow any leader as long as that person pushes the right buttons and has the proper enemies. The right has a nasty tendency towards a reverence for ideological ultrasimplicity and it consistently expresses itself in lowbrow confused mutterings on matters on which the rank and file have very little understanding but nevertheless servile loyalty to the company line regardless of circumstance. This while so many, not all, questions that beset us are not solved by black and white solutions. The world and its doings, like a typical day in London, is by and large gray. Only by critical thinking and logical clarity can we make our way through the fog.
- The right can also be ignorantly anti-intellectual and anti-cosmopolitan, as if a down-home demeanor and mud-caked ideology are the only ideas that pass cultural and political muster. Well guess what, sports fans, the populist myth —that there is some inherent wisdom in the masses— is just that, myth. Because come right or left, liberal or conservative, America First or Never Trumper, the game is always going to be run by the elites. Why? Because by earned merit or unearned entitlement, they are at the top. The proper question is, what sort of elites?
- The true elites live by noblesse oblige and comprehend that in a working republic they must strive for the reasonable good of all and not just feather their own nests. Sadly the pseudo-elites currently in power here and in the UK would sell out their people, nation, and own souls to crawl towards an ersatz cultural and political superiority that plays well in faculty lounges, government offices, and newsrooms. In the rest of America? Not so much.
- In today’s headlines on the Ukraine situation, impeachment, trade, immigration, healthcare, Brexit, and a host of other current issues, the battle lines are drawn the same. Those who have done their homework, know the issues, and can put a coherent thought or two together in the defense of what is civilized, what is smart and what is empirically proven are on one side. The baying jackals of rancid statism, wacky conspiracy, and base emotion (whether in defense of right or left) are on the other. The trick is, cutting through the clatter to listen to reasoned arguments from any side composed of thinking and decent individuals.
- This not only pertains to domestic, but to foreign and national security concerns as well. As much as some would like, and as much as it would be spiritually pleasing to do so, we can’t dismiss much of the rest of the world as gibbering foreign ingrates and spineless parasites. An America First attitude is correct. But an America Only attitude is dangerous, as it blinds us to challenges that will eventually be paid for one way or another. In the past those avoidable crucibles cost American lives and treasure in great numbers because we acted too late. A fortress America mentality solely postpones the future. It does not change it. As our real borders are not only on the Rio Grande and the Niagara, but also on the Rhine, the Ganges, and across every ocean, the world and our place in it will not go away just because we find it and many of its inhabitants pusillanimous and distasteful. Those who advocate that we lay aside our global opportunities and responsibilities would, perhaps inadvertently, bring us in the fullness of time to the same fate as Nineveh and Tyre.
- Such is my autumnal diatribe. Sometimes it’s acceptable to look away from the daily and deal with the bigger picture. Today, in this column, this is one of those times. It has been the same in the editorial past, on occasion. One hopes you have been enlightened and entertained by the exercise.
- On a lighter note, I will be taking a vacation for a week and a half back to my hometown on the azure-flecked beaches of South Florida. In contemplating such an Odysseus Returns to Ithaca adventure, and planning the supplies adequate for thorough carousing and bow bending amongst my subjects, I stand in awe of the marketing acumen of the Venmo-Budweiser guy. Though know full well that if any of you graciously send sundry party funds to my PayPal or Venmo account, I would not be as noble as that fellow. He donated the vast bulk of his lured lucre to charity. Oh no, I would use the geld exclusively to purchase vacation booze, cigars, and steaks, thus completely ignoring any pleas to contribute to the upkeep and well being of small children, adorable animals, and Mother Earth. After reading me for lo these assorted days, would you expect anything less?
- And finally, the current plan is to return my scribblings to this space a week from next Wednesday. As such, mostly contrary to popular rumor, if you play this column backwards the text does not read, “David is dead.” Have a nice one.
